The Little Dipper and the church bells

It is absolutely freezing outside. In fact, it is that cold that I can smell the winter. Around 1am.

I am sitting on a second floor balcony, in P.'s apartment. It is all dead quiet. I can see the street lights reflecting in the water. And even it is very dark at this time, I know that the sea is very close, I cannot hear the waves, but I can see the city's lights from across the channel. So I stare into the darkness of what I know it is the water.

I light up my cigarette and the noise from the lighter is the only thing that disturbs the quietness of these places. It feels I am not even in a city, but somewhere, far, far away from any cars, traffic, pubs and night clubs.

I look up and here it is: The little dipper. I haven't seen it in years, the sky is perfectly clear right above the apartment block, but I can actually see that I am in the hole of a cloud. Everywhere I look around, I can see the margins of this cloud, but somehow, tonight, it decided to spilt and let this beautiful sky be seen.

I haven't seen the little dipper for years, and when I say years, it's been at least 5 or 6. Because the sky has to be perfectly clear to see it, it's very hard to spot in all the constellations of Milky Way and it only shows up after midnight, sometimes 1 or 2am.

I looked very carefully to check if that is, indeed it - the shape and the stars are all there. A large smile comes up on my face and in that second I can hear bells ringing from a church. It that magical silence, the deep sound of bells seems like out of this world.

The bells stop, I look up to see Ursa Minor and I think how magic the world is. Then I know it's gone, as soon as I put words and rational thoughts into it, I know it's gone. I take one last smoke from my cigarette and go in.